Hope is a four letter word: 2021 Goal Making

I'm switching things up a little bit this year. Previously, I used to do 12 goals for 12 months. Then, I decided to partition my goals into specific categories because it made more sense for me. That organization has worked pretty well for me the last few years . . . except this year, for obvious reasons lol. I would use my usual organization again this year, but because the pandemic is, uhhh, still happening, I'm trying not to get super attached to competition based goals, which typically tend to take up the bulk of my Hashing and Unicorn Fairy goals. There's also just a lot of life changes that are likely to happen once I'm officially done with grad school. Student loan payments ain't cheap, and when I begged my parents to let me take our nearly 18 year old BMW to grad school with me, no one warned me that luxury cars, no matter how old, cost a butt ton of money to maintain. Lord, give me a Honda Civic.

Remember when this was peak comedy on Twitter?

In summary, Big Girl Things will be happening, and I don't want to get excited for shows only to end up stretched thin within the first quarter of the year. With that in mind, my goals this year will be shaped around something that's challenging but fun: habits.

I'm the best at building habits and the best at completely ditching them. My best habit is that I'm always willing to weave something new into my usual routine. My worst habit is that I will, under literally any circumstance, unweave that previously new thing and replace it with something else long before the first idea has a chance to benefit me. I'm results oriented and lose focus easily if I don't feel like I'm accomplishing something.

This year, in an effort to keep myself inspired, I thought deeply about habits I had previously that seemed to serve me well and made me feel good about myself and my riding. On top of that, I'll add some new ideas that build on positive things I already do instead of trying to reshape my behaviors.

2021 Habits

Workout Once Per Week - In the big scheme of things, it's not a lot, but I've noticed that doing a specific lower body workout a couple days before I ride makes a massive difference in my balance. I've been riding more lately due to being on break, and fixing my collapse is always a painful process when I'm out of shape. If I keep up with that specific set as a bare minimum, I'm hoping it'll stop me from completely losing the flexibility in my right side and the strength in my left side.

Two Point, Stretching, & No Stirrup Work Every Ride - Again, these are things that seriously help me balance. I've been incredibly focused on straightness and softness with all the horses I ride lately, and I can't do that properly if my legs and seat are constantly telling them to drift right.

More Fun ROOTDs - I kind of touched on this over the summer. I'm super self conscious about what I wear to the barn, but I also usually go to the barn directly after work. My outfits have to work for both scenes, but they've become increasingly unkept since the start of quarantine. Fashion is one of my big confidence boosters, and wearing things that are both attractive and comfortable makes it much easier to accomplish things on a daily basis.

Jump Once Per Month - It's not clear where this one will actually benefit me, but I noticed over most of last year that I always made excuses for why I shouldn't jump when riding on my own. I haven't had a serious jumping accident in years, and there's nothing about jumping that scares me besides the built up fences at horse shows. It's worth it to practice.

Clean My Tack - Remember when I bought my Ariat paddock boots back in 2014? They have been cleaned twice since then. Remember when I bought my saddle in 2016? It was getting neatsfoot oil regularly for the first couple of months, but once the squeaking stopped, I said "to hell" with all that. It got cleaned two weeks ago for the first time in several years. Bottom line, my tack does not get cleaned nearly as often as it should be.

. . . Ya know, this post was much more extensive in my head. Anyways, Happy New Year! I'm literally always excited to do goal setting posts and even more excited to read what everyone else has in store for the new year :)